I Don't See It On Facebook

I've been asked about it a fair bit, so I thought I would explain why IDHAS doesn't promote on Facebook as much now. The simple fact is that it doesn't have the reach that it used to, blame algorithms, volume of friends, adverts, whatever you like, but it simply doesn't. I'd noticed that likes and comments had been declining considerably.

I Don't Hear A Single has never been about me, but about the artists who are reviewed. At first, I thought it may be that IDHAS needed refreshing. Three Years in and it has evolved, but everything only lasts so long. So I looked at ways to correct this and talked to lots of Bloggers who were witnessing the same.

Facebook wise, algorithms came up a lot. but although likes and comments weren't massively down, it was always the same people who made the effort. Personally, I was also getting fed up of the Power Pop forums. Firstly because of the But Is It Power Pop rubbish, but also seeing the same promotional posts on a dozen different forums was making me lose interest.

I was also getting well pissed off with Bloggers who post 20 times a day, largely talking about themselves. So I looked at a way to ensure that artists reviews were seen without relying on Facebook. I will still promote a review on Facebook, but one may be on my timeline, another on the IDHAS Facebook Group. I'd also do a tagging on the forums of reviews of the previous week in one post.

Facebook can still be relevant, but the way round growing support for the artist is by fans or friends of the band linking the review in their Facebook posts, that will beat the algorithm and general noise. This is not a promotion attempt, it's a suggestion on behalf of the artists that IDHAS covers.

Without this getting boring, Google Analytics was revealed to me. Now I know that most of you will say yeah right on the benefits of such and I would have too. But having been taught the basics, I've seen the light. I don't recommend all running into Google's arms, it takes some getting used to, but it's free.

Since using Google Analytics, I've seen Blog Readership increase greatly and what is even better, the majority is in reading older reviews. I was always concerned about Readers bothering with Reviews when they drop off the Front Page. That's why the Most Popular Posts section was introduced. So I now have the best of both worlds, people are supporting the artists and finding a greater section of them.

The greatest example of this are the two Supernaturals Posts. Numbers keep going up and up, yet only 15% are from Social Media. So in summary, I'm not trying to promote Google or look that bright. I'm just explaining why I don't promote as much on Social Media. It's also a bonus not continually reading supposed Facebook Artist reviews when most of the content is about the writer.